This is one of those cakes that just begs for you to steal a bite each time you walk by it, perched on the counter, a fudgy temptress oozing with salty, crunchy caramel topping. Fingerful by fingerful, I spent the better part of last weekend slowly whittling away at the caramel topping, telling myself just one more taste and then *whoops*, all of a sudden half of it was gone. Needless to say, I had to hurry what remained out of the house to this week’s girl’s night, where I fed it to a group of wine-yielding galfriends, who ate it by the forkful straight off of the serving plate.

It’s a simple, single-layer brownie (posing as a cake) that’s slightly chewy with an intensely moist, dense crumb that borders on chocolate torte. High quality bittersweet chocolate lends a deep, rich chocolate flavor with a bitter bite that perfectly contrasts the sweet and salty homemade caramel. And that sauce! It’s a homemade caramel that’s impossibly smooth and creamy (thank you, butter + cream), dotted with tender, crunchy Spanish peanuts for both texture and salt. Think a Baby Ruth candy bar all grown up, and minus all of the artificial additives. In other words, perfection.

Serve it with glasses of ice cold milk for a nostalgic treat with a grown-up twist! You can get the recipe over on Lark & Linen! XO, Katie

I am into this in a major way! There’s a related recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking book that I made…maybe 6 years ago?…and I still remember it fondly after all this time. Brownies +caramel + peanuts is a classic for sure!!